


Rescuing Kittens (A Maybe Not So Heroic Tale)

by kuro



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Cats, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-28
Updated: 2014-07-28
Packaged: 2018-02-10 19:13:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2036754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuro/pseuds/kuro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony rescues some cats after a successful mission and takes them home to care for them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rescuing Kittens (A Maybe Not So Heroic Tale)

**Author's Note:**

> This was an anonymous prompt on tumblr: 'if you're in a Tony + cat mood, can he rescue some abandoned kittens and keep them in his workshop working feverishly to bring them back to good health while everyone thinks he's just busy working and then they find out it is really kittens keeping his attention?'

Immediately after they had subdued the villain of the week, Tony took off and flew back to the Tower on his own. He hadn’t been very amused that his workshop time had been interrupted, especially not by a what had turned out to be a completely incompetent bad guy.

A few streets away from the Tower, however, he noticed something on his display.

“J.A.R.V.I.S,” he commanded. “Save that location.”

“Yes, sir,” J.A.R.V.I.S confirmed. “Should I prepare the usual equipment?”

“Yeah,” Tony answered, speeding the suit up.

Once Tony arrived at the Tower, he immediately stripped out of the armour and went down to get one of his cars. When he peeled out of the garage, J.A.R.V.I.S dutifully displayed the directions to the location he had saved earlier on the sat nav.

“It’s the next one way street to the left,” J.A.R.V.I.S announced once they had gotten close.

“Thanks, Jarv,” Tony said, following J.A.R.V.I.S’ directions and stopping the car right next to a particularly messy refuse container. He left the car, made a face, and started digging around in the mess surrounding the container, reappearing with a banged up cardboard box after a short while.

“You found it, sir?” J.A.R.V.I.S asked when Tony went back to the car and put the box on the passenger seat.

“Yeah, I did,” Tony affirmed. “I really don’t get people, though. Why here? There are better places, heck, I have put a lot of money into emergency centres and whatnot. Now let’s go back to the Tower.”

* * *

 

“Ugh, you guys stink,” Tony complained when he carried the box into his workshop. “You badly need a bath. Jarv, is everything ready?”

“All the necessary items have arrived, sir,” J.A.R.V.I.S informed him. “They’re over there in the box on the table.”

“Great,” Tony said, setting down his own cardboard box next to the sink and going over to the giant box waiting for him. J.A.R.V.I.S had thought of everything, food, toys, shampoo, even fluffy towels. He grabbed everything he might need to get his newest foster children clean, and went over to the still closed cardboard box.

“Just a second,” he told the mewing furballs inside while he prepared the water and the shampoo.

“Great, now let’s see,” he mumbled, carefully opening the box and peeking inside. It took him a moment to separate the kittens and make sense of the tangle of limbs, but then he managed to make a head count: one jet black kitten, one calico, three tabby kittens in various shades of grey and one red tabby. All were mewing, dirty and obviously malnourished, but none of them seemed sick or dangerously close to dying.

Tony picked one of the grey tabbies (the one with the lightest colour that seemed the least likely to go and scratch him up) and carefully put it into the lukewarm water in the sink. It meowed a little, but after a short while, it let itself be washed and dried without much fuss. He put the kitten into a different box that was cushioned and padded with some fluffy towels, and went to wash the other ones.

The grey kittens and the calico were quite docile, and it didn’t take Tony very long to get them all washed and dried. Only the red tabby and the black kitty put up a giant fuss, the little black devil even managed to escape and Tony had to chase it throughout the workshop.

“Talk about stereotype,” Tony grumbled once he had managed to catch the kitten (who was still struggling valiantly and trying to escape). “You shall be henceforth called Satan, you beast.”

The kitten only hissed at him.

* * *

 

“Hey Dum-e,” Tony spoke up when he had finally managed to get all the kittens in the box and was preparing some kitten-appropriate food for them, “why don’t you stop whining and whirring around behind me and go get the safety fence?”

Dum-e made another pitiful sound (most likely because Tony wouldn’t let him touch the kittens), but he went off together with U to go fetch the safety fence. Tony had built it himself so he could put around the couch in the workshop. With it, he could finally let the kittens out of the box without having to worry that they would hurt themselves on some of his tools or half-built suits.

With the help of the two bots, the fence was quickly installed, and Tony let the little fluffballs run free after he had fed them. Satan and the little red one started to destroy the sofa immediately, but the light grey one and the calico seemed to be the cuddly kind and wrapped themselves around Tony’s legs. The dark grey one dove under the sofa and stayed there.

Tony tried to resist first, he had really wanted to do some work, but a short while later, he had somehow ended up on the sofa with several kittens crawling over his lap.

* * *

 

“Sandwiches?” Clint asked, tone judging. “Didn’t you just eat?”

“I think Tony is on another inventing spree, and he’s probably forgotten to eat again,” Steve answered absent-mindedly. “I’m going to bring him something.”

Clint snorted.

“Don’t you think you take suspiciously good care of Tony?” he sniggered. Natasha kicked him.

“Hey!” Clint complained. “What was that for?”

“Just let them be,” Bruce mumbled, reaching out and patting Clint’s arm without looking up from his book.

Clint raised a judging eyebrow at him, but he didn’t say anything more.

Steve wandered out of the kitchen with his sandwich, not really listening to their conversation. He had tried a new kind of sauce today, and he wondered if Tony would like it or not.

* * *

 

“Hey To… oh,” Steve started when he entered the workshop. Tony was lying on the sofa, asleep. And six kitten were there with him, snuggled on his chest and stomach. One of them was even curled up between his shoulder and neck.

Steve couldn’t help but smile. He wondered when Tony had acquired cats, because they definitely hadn’t been there the last time he had been down in the workshop. Dum-e stood as close to the fence as he possibly could manage, attentively watching his sleeping creator and the tiny balls of fuzz.

“Cute, aren’t they?” Steve asked Dum-e with a smile once he had reached the fence. Dum-e beeped in agreement and earned himself a gentle pat on his strut.

When Steve stepped over the fence surrounding the sofa, one of the cats woke up and jumped down from the sofa, hopping over to Steve and immediately starting to bat at his trousers.

“Stop that, Satan,” Tony murmured, eyes opening a little.

“Satan?” Steve laughed. “Don’t tell me you named the kitten Satan.”

“And what if I did?” Tony petulantly asked. “That thing is Satan personified.”

“Seems more like a Tony to me,” Steve grinned, reaching down and carefully picking the kitten up. He stroked it a few times, and it turned into putty in his hands, purring loudly. “Definitely a Tony.”

“Excuse me??” Tony exclaimed, head shooting up. Some of the kittens who had still been sleeping complained loudly.

“Whoops, sorry guys,” Tony apologised and gathered the kittens so none of them would fall off the sofa or be accidentally squished.

“So what are their names?” Steve asked, still scratching ~~Satan~~ Tony. “And where did you get them from?”

“Back alley,” Tony shrugged as if it was no big deal. “I wanted to name the red one Pepper, but the real Pepper would probably have my head – she’s not fond of cats. So now he’s named Zabaglione.”

Steve snorted.

“What, you don’t like Zabaglione?” Tony asked Steve with a raised eyebrow. “Pepper sure loves her Zabaglione.”

“I do like Zabaglione, but that’s not the issue here,” Steve smiled. “Tell me about he other ones.”

“The dark grey one is Shadow, he’s particularly good at hiding,” Tony continued. “The middle grey one is Sekhmet, calm but fierce when she’s displeased. The light grey one is Celeste, he’s an angel. The calico is Cinnamon, she’s made of sugar and spice and everything nice. And you’ve already met Satan.”

“Tony,” Steve corrected. Tony looked like he wanted to protest, but Steve hurriedly carried on. “Why are you keeping them down here, though? It’s easier to take care of them upstairs, that way we can all help?”

Tony didn’t say anything, but he also wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“I mean it’s obvious you like… oh,” Steve suddenly realised. Tony gave him a bitter smile.

“Well, it’s not like she’s here anymore, so I guess you’re right, we should take them upstairs,” he agreed, getting up from the sofa and starting to gather the things they would need for the kittens.

“Upstairs?” Steve asked Tony the kitten, and the kitten mewed at him enthusiastically.

* * *

 

The kittens took to the common area of the Avengers Tower and to the Avengers themselves like fish to water. (And the Avengers took to them just as easily.) After a short while, certain tendencies started to show.

Tony the kitten, for example, was completely obsessed with Steve and would hardly ever let anyone else touch him. (If Steve caught Tony and Tony snuggling sometimes, he carefully didn’t mention it.)

Zabaglione struck up a fierce friendship with Thor almost immediately, and liked to do ‘battle’ with him. Thor delighted in the tiny feline, and sometimes the two could be found sitting on a window sill, Thor gently scratching Zabaglione’s ears and telling him tales of battles and Freyja’s large cats that pulled her carriage.

Celeste and Cinnamon were both very sweet and cuddly cats, and they generally liked to be petted by anyone who was willing. Cinnamon had a particular weakness for Bruce, though, and would sometimes trail after him for hours.

Shadow liked dark and high places (when he was able to reach them, he was still a bit wobbly on his legs). He generally loved places where he could hide and pounce on unsuspecting victims. Clint started to take Shadow with him when he went up to one of his ‘nests’, much to Shadow’s pleasure and passing people’s shock.

Sekhmet was the calmest of all the cats and didn’t let herself be petted all too often, but she was usually found somewhere in the vicinity of Tony (who tended to talk science to her, something she apparently liked). She also liked the smell of coffee and would always appear in the kitchen when someone made coffee. Since that person tended to be Tony most often, the rest of them joked that the two of them really formed a perfect pair.

All the cats liked Natasha for some reason. Even Tony grudgingly accepted her and didn’t hiss or bat at her like he tended to do with the others, even Steve. (The fact that she tended to sneak them the best treats might heavily factor into that.)

* * *

 

“Satan really likes you,” Tony said by way of greeting when he entered the living room a while after the kittens had grown used to living in the Tower and had grown considerably.

“Tony,” Steve automatically corrected, not even bothering to look up from his book or stop scratching Tony’s ears.

“That cat is _nothing_ like me,” Tony viciously denied. “First of all, I am charming. And it’s probably time to find them foster parents, anyway.”

That got Steve’s attention.

“Why that?” he asked in confusion. “They have it good here.”

“Wait… were you thinking of keeping them?” Tony asked, surprised.

“Weren’t you?” Steve shrugged. “Tony’s basically my cat at this point. All of us like the cats. The cats like us. Jane and Darcy like the cats. Tony let himself be petted by Rhodey last week.”

“Whaat? That bastard cat is stealing my friends!” Tony exclaimed.

“No, it just seems like he has a similar taste to you,” Steve grinned.

“I said this cat is nothing like me,” Tony shouted.

“Mmmh, but everyone agrees with me, even Tony,” Steve cooed, lifting the cat up and bumping their noses together. “Right, Tony?”

The cat meowed in agreement. Steve kissed the soft fur of the cat and cuddled him closer, softly whispering sweet words.

“I love you very, very much,” he quietly sang. “And Tony loves me too, riiight?”

Tony the human made a high squeaking noise and high tailed out of the room, Sekhmet following him at a more sedate pace.

“Aw, looks like we overdid it a little,” Steve sighed.

Tony the cat batted at his chin and distinctly did not care.


End file.
